How to Efficiently Use Positive Affirmations

There are two types of affirmation, the negative and positive. Usually for some individuals they rely heavily on the negative because of habit and part of it is a survival mechanism to survive from wild animals back in the day. 

A good example is competition, many people look at competition as a win/lose scenario, but it is not always the case because if we lose there is a room for improvement and valuable lessons we can take from. It is not ok to lose and we don’t take anything from it.

Usually the conversation that we have with ourselves when we lose is along the lines of I am worthless, I am not enough, I am not capable, and I am not talented. These negative affirmations we tell ourselves could be placed in our unconscious or conscious mind. Once this becomes a habit it is an entrapment that most people don’t realize and get stuck with that mentality.

A great strategy to get out of the entrapment of negative affirmation is the opposite of that which is positive affirmation. This is important because you are what you think about. If you believe or talk to yourself that you are not going anywhere in life, then most likely you are not going anywhere in life. The power of positive thinking or positive affirmation is not just about telling ourselves something positive, but rewiring our brain to something positive.

Imagine a Sun that is covered with clouds occasionally and think of those clouds as your negative thoughts. While the Sun represents Us as a whole radiating over the rest of world. The sun signifies the genuine and the authentic us. Our ability to be positive is essential even if it doesn’t go the way we plan it to be because this will determine your attitude, and approach to life which affects whether you’ll be successful in the pursuit of your goals and ambitions.

As Gandhi stated, “if what you think, say, and do are in alignment you will experience harmony.”

This is the same with our affirmation if we talk to ourselves negatively, then we’ll experience negative. We need to disrupt this behavior and be more in line with positive thoughts to experience genuine happiness and success in life.

It is important to recognize that affirmation is not just about saying positive to yourself, but rather you need to feel, believe, and mean it. The feeling of it is based on your own experience, belief is with your own education and the truth, and you mean it is a choice of where you want to divert those energies.  

There was a study that was conducted in the Netherlands where a group of anorexic women were observed when they were entering a door they were going in sideways, but in reality they did not need to shift their body sideways and similar with women who often wear tall hats. They would duck under upon entering a place despite the fact that they don’t have to.

It is the exact same concept that's happening to our mentality if we go to an interview telling ourselves that we are not enough, we are most likely to project that energy to the person who is interviewing us.

Another powerful tool that we can use with positive affirmation is shifting the “I” to a third person when we are speaking with ourselves. By doing this we are more likely to support and give great advice to ourselves because when we speak with someone we love things change. Usually when we talk to ourselves with “I” it messes us up or our ego gets in a way.

There was a statement from Lebron James where he stated before leaving Cleveland “I wanted to do best for Lebron James.” This doesn’t mean that he is being selfish; it is an affirmation of what is best for himself in order to bring out the best out of him.

Similar to my own experience when I speak in a third person during my public speaking in class I talk to myself saying, “Von is a great speaker because he had done many speeches before and it was successful.” This helped me to be calm and be more composed during the speech because of those positive affirmations I told myself. 

With the information that we just read above what would be a practical way to get better at positive affirmation?

First of all, we need to consider that our brain is literal. It is not enough to just tell ourselves that we already know it in our heads because generally speaking it does not click straight away with what we tell ourselves.

We need to repeat those positive affirmations over and over again until it is manifested in our reality. This needs a constant reminder, just like how we shower every day to clean ourselves. We also need to take daily action towards what we are affirming.

A great strategy to use is post-it notes. List 3 positive affirmations that you will see first thing in the morning and another 3 before going to sleep. You may place them in the bathroom mirror or refrigerator. Whichever place that works for you that you can see it first thing in the morning.

By implementing this strategy alone will expedite the process of your success and fastest method to break your bad habits of negative thinking. 

What are your 3 positive affirmations in the morning and 3 lists at night before going to bed?